If you are in the editing business, and don’t have a super computer, you know how annoying it is to wait for your computer to render your piece. So I’ve compiled a short list of things to do while rendering:

Two weeks ago I’ve started a show in Hebrew called “Mac Anonymous” – targeted at Mac addicts in Israel. We are a two men team, myself and Guy Nehser, and we do everything in this show – shoot, light, sound, and post production (including editing).

I am no editing expert, and everything I am writing here is coming from my own experience. However, I’d like to share with you some of the techniques and tools I am using to increase my productivity in the editing process. Some of them are concepts, and some are hands-on tricks. I’d love to hear your feedback, thoughts and advice.

The Importance Of Rhythm

My sister is a very talented musician. Unlike me, she knows how to play the guitar, piano and bunch of other instruments. That’s why she managed to edit some amazing video clips with nothing but Windows Movie maker (god forbid, but she is moving to a Mac soon). Walter Murch, who edited amazing pieces such as The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, said in one interview that editing is all about rhythm – finding your piece rhythm would lead you to a better understanding of the shots and cuts you need to preform. For me this is the basis of my whole editing experience.

Watch While Capturing

I used to look at capturing as the most annoying part of the editing process. It is probably due to the use of Non Linear Editing system like Final Cut, that allowed me to capture without going through the whole material (unlike linear editing). While editing the second episode of my show, I reviewed the material as I captured it. This process saved me a lot of time. While capturing I’ve already identified the best takes that fit the final product. It also helped me to easily find interesting parts or great bloopers. It was a major time saver – capture your own material.

Listen When Cutting

When I watch an unedited piece, I tend to lose focus as the visuals take all my attention. Though visuals are crucial in video editing, sound is much more important in many cases (people would tolerate bad lit video, but not bad sound). Taking that into account, I started editing new pieces in the following way: after identifying a good shot, i close my eyes and listen to the audio (in this show, it is mostly an anchor reading something). Every time I feel that there is a need to change an image to fit the audio track I add an editing point (in Final Cut Pro it is done with CTRL V). Sound strange right? Try it and see what you get after one pass of the shot – you have all the edit points that require to change the zoom of the shot, add graphics or another audio layer. By doing this procedure I’ve reduced more than 30% of my editing time – because after my first pass I already had a roughly edited piece.

Let Your Camera Roll

I no longer stop my camera between shots. In the case of our show, we had a static set. Therefore we just let the camera roll and stop it only when we take a long break. Yes, it does increase capturing time, but it is very efficient when coming to organizing the material as a whole. This tip is relevant mainly for short pieces such as internet shows.

Change Shots In Post Production

Another useful trick we are using is to shot in wide angle and leave the zooms for post production. This way, we have a steady shot, and we then create in post production close ups, extreme close ups and american shots. Remember the editing points we made while listening? By pasting attributes from one edit point to the other, we created a dynamic piece, even though the camera didn’t move at all. The combination of creating an edit point, specific shots, and then pasting these attributes between clips, made my editing way faster than changing camera position.

This is the result – is it is far from perfect, and the next piece is better, but it will give you a sense of the result that can be achieved using these methods: